Rocket Report: SpaceX to do “right” by OneWeb, ESA looks at backup launch plans

The edition 4.37 of the Rocket Report is here. The big event this weekend is a wet dress rehearsal for NASA's Space Launch System rocket, which begins on Friday and is currently scheduled to conclude on Sunday. Be sure to check out the full preview story on Friday morning.

If you don't want to miss an issue, please subscribe using the box below, the form will not appear on the site with the new version. The reports will include information on small-, medium-, and heavy-lift rockets as well as a quick look at the next three launches on the calendar.

Virgin Orbit will lose $150 million in 2021. In its first financial results since going public in December, Virgin Orbit reported a net loss of $157.3 million for the year and $7.4 million in revenue. In 2020, the net loss was $121.6 million on $3.8 million in revenue. The launch company emphasized in an earnings call the increase in revenue from two missions conducted in 2021.

Looking to expand beyond the initial launch. National security and international customers are interested in the company's air-launch system, according to Dan Hart, chief executive of Virgin Orbit. At the end of 2020, the company had a total of $86 million in commitments, but at the end of 2021, it had $575 million in commitments. Virgin Orbit is looking into playing a role in hypersonics. The launch target for Virgin Orbit is four to six flights of LauncherOne, down from six in January.

The fourth human flight was completed by Blue Origin. Blue Origin's New Shepard launch system took flight on Thursday morning from the company's spaceport in West Texas. The suborbital flight took six passengers, including Blue Origin engineer Gary Lai, to an altitude of 106 km. This was the company's fourth human spaceflight aboard New Shepard.

Private space tourism. New Shepard has been launched 20 times by Blue Origin. Blue Origin engineers deserve a lot of credit for making suborbital space access seem routine with New Shepard. New Shepard is proving to be a great machine, despite the fact that they have work to do on cadence and bringing down costs.

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The company reports losses as well. The launch company had a net loss of $68 million in 2020, but it had a net loss of $257.8 million in the year after that. At the end of 2021, the company had $325 million in cash and equivalents. The company noted in its release that it had completed two out of three launches since its last quarterly results call.

There is a bet on a big backlog. Although it hasn't demonstrated a high success rate, Astra is moving toward a near-monthly launch cadence. As it scales up launch operations, it says it has plenty of customers ready to go.

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Kelly Latimer is the director of flight test. A veteran pilot and retired US Air Force lieutenant colonel has been promoted to director of flight test. The first female test pilot was hired by Virgin Galactic. She was the pilot in command for the Unity 21 mission. She is a pilot for Virgin Galactic.

There is a lot of work to be done. The entire flight test program, including design, planning, execution, and post-flight analysis, will now be overseen by Latimer. She will be in charge of the completion of the flight test program for the current fleet, which is scheduled to resume later this year, as well as the development of the company's new motherships and Delta-class spaceships.

The SEC wants to tighten rules. A number of US launch companies have recently used special purpose acquisition companies to go public. This is a process in which a publicly traded shell company acquires a private company for the purpose of taking that second company public. Private companies can circumvent the traditional Initial Public Offering, or IPO process, which involves a lot of scrutiny of a company's financial record, by using the SPAC process.

The investors are protected. There have been many rosy financial outlooks offered by executives of commercial space companies to potential investors. We have already seen some investor lawsuits. Gary Gensler, chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission, said that the SPAC target IPO is being used as an alternative means to conduct an IPO.